The Art of Being Alive as a Millennial

This is the question that started my journey into the mission of creating an inspirational book that profiles people’s stories from around the world exploring the art of being alive. The mission started after I had taken a two week break from my job to breathe and just relieve myself from the compounding stress I was feeling. The month which I took off, I had joined an online writer’s group that was dedicated to writing every day for thirty days; I took up this writing challenge because I knew it was what I truly needed to get myself feeling more awake and tapping into my very creative self which at that time, I didn’t feel I was exploring on a daily basis. Writing is my passion, and knowing that what I write can inspire another is my mojo. Once I committed to this art daily, added with my decision to travel and take a break from my job that was indeed stressing me out at that time; I felt most alive and awake. It was the idea of doing something out of my norm, tapping into my creative brightness immensely and that commitment to completing the continuous art for 30 days which led me to see and observe the world around me, in a way my daily grind wouldn’t have allowed me to; made me feel alive. Once I wrapped up, I gained a new curiosity about what makes others feel alive and that started my creative journey of making this coffee-table book.

As a millennial, I know too well from first hand experience the struggles we face and the battles we stand to conquer. Why would I feel the need to take a break from my own life? How much stress could I have been dealing with from work that made me feel mentally and physically exhausted? The pain points for millennials globally are all very similar; By now we have the definition of millennial down which according to a white house report on economic facts about millennials, (https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/millennials_report.pdf) we are those born between 1980 and mid-2000s and according to the PEW research are the largest generation alive (1/3 of total world population) and are 33% larger than the Boomers (the second largest generation). There is so much to say about our millennial generation, several ongoing research are retrieving statistics pertaining to our millennial generation from an economic standpoint, how we are faring in the labor market and how we are organizing our personal lives. Our generation according to the whitehouse reports and USchamberfoundation.org are marked by transformations at nearly every important milestone; we are the recipients feeling the most lasting effects of the recession that collapsed the economy, and are also the generation that will shape our economy for decades to come according to the http://www.uschamberfoundation.org/millennial-generation-research-review. These are general facts facing us as millennials that we deal constantly.

My passion for our millennial generation is rooted in my deepest desires of exploring philosophically and practically the meaning of life and how we can truly discover beyond happiness a life of wellbeing, fulfillment and living fully alive. As millennials we are dealing with financial and economic barriers, trying hard to hustle our way out of the rat race and placing more value on our physical and mental health; especially with the overwhelming statistics of depression which according to the World Health Organization, globally more than 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression. All these contributes to the stress we feel especially as our generation is the largest generation alive, certainly life needs to feel more alive for us all inother to avoid the greatest tragedy as Steven Pressfield, author of the “War of ART” put it, “the unlived life”.

The art of being alive is in our chosen way of living within all that surrounds us. It lies in tapping into experiences that makes us feel more alive, cultivating a deeper sense of being and designing a life that we can find true meaning in.

From rediscovering my own identity as a millennial in these times and learning the ropes of life, watching how my millennial friends are living, constantly evolving, creating and overcoming/breaking status quo and the fun ongoing journey in crafting this book “The Art of Being Alive” that is dedicated to our millennial generation; this is a summary of my findings of what our conscious millennial generation are about, especially those I have interviewed so far who are discovering their ART of Being Alive:

“We millennials love and crave different avenues that allows us to feel more alive, such as being in nature, being in environment that awakens our senses and finding experiences that bring out our aliveness. We have become a more mindful, awakened and conscious generation in how we live and how we organize our personal lives. We crave passion work that allows us to explore not just the world but our deepest selves, work that gives us this crazy feel of fulfillment, we care about doing more meaningful things with our time than laboring mindlessly just to make money. We love relationships that are established on a conscious level, you know; that conscious relationship that is sacred to us and the sexiness is built on the way we hold space for each other to be real and be one’s true self. We travel! God, Yes we either travel, love to travel, crave more travel or sneak in travels; we see travel as a way to live making our own experiences and creating our own perspectives on life far beyond what the books tell us. We are adventure junkies, and adrenalin seekers and we discover opportunities that allows us the ride of these cravings in the most logical way possible as we create our own paths. We are huge creators and relish in the art and act of creating. So many of us have quit jobs to start our own companies because the only way we see, out of the sulking rat race is to be entrepreneurial. As part of the art some of us reach this millennial crisis where we must and most certainly redefine ourselves, rebrand ourselves and reconstruct our ideologies of life and how we have been living. We all reach this point, where we push on the emergency breaks of our mundane, routine and confused mindless way of living which is what leads to our awakening of finding ourselves. We do the work which involves a lot of personal development, get to the point where we realize that the answers are not resting on the exterior but the answers are resting inside of us, deep rooted within our soul and we always know. We always know because the crisis point signifies that there has to be a rebirth which lies in the answers to the question “What makes us feel Alive?”; we most certainly have hints of what the answers might be but again the famous fear that kills dreams and allows us feel handicapped and incapable, toys with our minds that we can’t fully go for the dreams we desire that makes us feel alive, but most often we wrestle with It until we win. We wrestle because we know we must find ourselves and cannot remain in status quo or mediocrity, better yet we wrestle and win because we don’t feel alive until we begin doing the things we truly desire in our deepest selves that gives us the strong feelings of aliveness. This and more is the ART of being alive as millennials.” Are you Alive?

Inviting you to be a part of the making of the book “Art of Being Alive” to share your story. Apply using this link: http://www.formget.com/app/form/share/5xAc-136644

Biography: Adedayo Fashanu is a millennial who refuses to play small and is ready to be a game changer in her generation, an emerging voice for social change. She is a writer, someone who has strong background in the field of mental health as a behavioral specialist and a case manager with her Bachelors in Psychology and currently ongoing Master’s studies. An Integrative Nutrition Health Coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition NYC. Her passion for psychology, nutrition, wellness, health and wellbeing led her to found her company LifestyleWellbeing LLC, a socially conscious company that is currently working to manufacture healthy line of food and beverage products.
She recognized the gap that exists in how intensely people search for themselves pertaining to finding meaning to life, happiness, creativity and general wellbeing because she as well is in the phase of exploring her own aliveness and how she can live a more meaningful life with alive experiences; this personal quest has been the catalyst for her documentary book project “The Art of Being Alive”, a book first and a movement aimed at documenting stories from people around the world exploring what it means to come alive, to feel alive and live fully. A book that she hopes will inspire several to pursue a life with meaning and aliveness and boost people’s mental wellness on how they see themselves as they aspire for a happy life. She believes that by sharing people’s come alive stories in this book, the reader will be pumped up to go live out fully alive because she believes that the art of being alive is on the other side of fear.